The Year of Destashing

The year I started to sew, a whole new world opened up to me: The world of fabric. Something I had nevered cared about in my non-sewing days, let alone noticed. And then, all of a sudden, I saw fabric everywhere: In small shops. In big shops. At IKEA. At flea markets, departments stores, charity shops, … you name it.

So there I was, a completely overwhelmed beginner, buying any beautiful fabric that blew my mind (which, at that time, was pretty much every second one I came across).

The only problem with stashbuilding as a beginner is that you have absolutely no idea what you are doing. You buy fabric simply for its beauty, thinking “This will make a nice summer dress”, not knowing that neither the weight of the fabric nor the meters you bought are suitable for a dress.

Books and magazines from my pattern stash. Not seen: 6 printed and about 14 PDF patterns.

I bought lots of fabric for different reasons over the years. Some for their beauty, some for future dream projects, some just because. Right now they fill up two shelves in my sewing room and one suitcase in my closet. And then there’s that other stash of never-used sewing patterns, books and magazines.

All of these take up space, both in my sewing room and in my mind. And it’s time to win that space back!

So here’s my plan:

As part of my Year of Destashing, I will …

Sew with fabric and patterns from my stash

Not buy any new fabric unless it is
a) necessary for completing a project or
b) intended for a project that I will start that day and finish that week

Not buy any new patterns unless there’s nothing comparable in my pattern stash

Finish all unfinished projects

Sell/Donate/Trash the fabrics I’ll never use

Hopefully save a lot of money

I will document my Year of Destashing here on the blog and on instagram.

You can follow me there or see the pictures of the challenge over here.

The past weeks have already been successful: My number of knit fabrics is nearly down to zero. More on that later.